Community: Season Three (2012)

Showrunner: Dan Harmon

 There's a lot of talk about how Community is so experimental and how that prevents it from gaining anything more than a niche audience, but it's really not all that experimental. It may be experimental with its form sometimes, but the characters and their relationships are pretty populist and fairly easy to digest. There may be a few times when the show has done something unexpected with the character relationships, but most often the show is pretty optimistic and "feel-good" when it comes to how the group interacts. But at the same time, the experimental form and frequent references to pop culture (including references to past episodes of the show itself) are what make this show so special and inventive.

I wouldn't say this show is particularly meaningful in anyway, even if it does try sometimes, but what it does best is take advantage of the form. This season we saw musicals, characters as video games, a horror story anthology, and more. But easily the best of the season was "Remedial Chaos Theory," an episode which presents multiple alternate realities and shows us how the group would work without certain characters. It's a brilliant episode and the fact that they fit all of that in 22 minutes is incredibly impressive. The episode represents the best of what Community can do. While this season has its fair share of great episodes, it also has many forgettable episodes and lacks a satisfying season-long arc, something I always look for in a worthwhile TV show. As fun and unique as this show is, there is actually room for improvement, and this season highlighted some of that.

Grade: B+